• Happy Veteran's Day! There's a parade today on 5th Avenue from 23rd to 56th Streets to celebrate the 91st anniversary of the holiday. Opening ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. in Madison Square Park. Some 20,0000 are expected to participate in the parade. [NBC NY]

• Folks on the disabled Carnival cruise ship being towed back to San Diego (where it's expected later today) haven't actually wanted booze (even though it's free!) during their ordeal of no air conditioning, hot water, or cooked food...they just want coffee. Maybe because canned crabmeat, Pop Tarts, and Spam don't exactly have a wine pairing? [Pat's Papers]

• In yet another bid to take over the retail universe, Wal-Mart will offer free shipping on its website, starting today, for nearly 60,000 items, including many toys and electronics, with no minimum purchase. The offer extends through December 20 -- for now. [NYT]

• Anthony Franzese, the man hit by an air conditioner that fell from the 6th floor of 65 2nd Avenue a few months ago, is suing the owner of the building, Zenon Chernyk, for $21 million compensation from injuries including "a skull fracture, concussion, and other serious injuries to his head which caused permanent brain damage." Franzese had been evicted from his apartment in the same building a week before the accident. [The Lo-Down]

• A Queens condo board has lost in its 3-year, $100,000 legal battle to evict a 3.5-pound Yorkie based on bylaws that say "unit owners, their pets and guests shall not create a nuisance." The Yorkie, apparently, was not deemed a nuisance any more than was the condo board. [NYP]

• Jairo Pastoressa, the East Village graffiti artist accused of fatally stabbing Christopher Lusko in the neck "in a dispute over a girl," has been determined mentally unfit to stand trial and will be treated at at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Ward's Island. His diagnosis remains undisclosed. [EV Grieve]

• The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree-to-be (a 74-foot-tall Norway spruce weighing 12 tons) is getting chopped down in Mahopac, New York, and transported to Manhattan today. Its first lighting is on November 30. It's that time of year again... [Lo-Hud]